Abe Foxman Epitomizes the Failure of Jewish Leadership

We saw the lengths to which the left will go to demonize and destroy its opponents this week, when in the New York Jewish Week on March 16, Abraham Foxman charged that I am "in many ways no better than Farrakhan or Buchanan." I am proud of my work as a patriot and a passionate Zionist; to be compared to Jew-haters by a man who styles himself a leader of the Jews is abominable.Foxman charged me with bigotry for my work with Stop Islamization of America, a program of my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. So now defending free society from an ideology that makes war against free speech and equal rights for women and non-Muslims is "bigotry." Defending Jews from an ideology that features a more deeply ingrained and violent anti-Semitism than any other in the world is "hatred."

We have seen the likes of Abe Foxman before in Jewish history: the reviled traitor among us -- Dathan in TheTen Commandments. The idea that this greasy quisling still leads the Anti-Defamation League is a stunning indictment of the failure of Jewish lay leadership. Worse still, a Jewish press is publishing this collaborator. I called Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of Jewish Week, several times over the last few days, but he was always (surprise!) on the other line when I called. He did finally agree to print a letter from me, but he refused to give me the space he eagerly gave to Foxman to defame me.

The capacity for humiliating, destructive behavior from Abe Foxman (and those Jews who fund the Anti-Defamation League) continues to astound and repel proud Jews across the world.

Foxman's record of poisonous activity that is ultimately harmful to the Jewish community is longstanding. His denial of the Armenian genocide is monstrous. If we as a people cannot stand with other victims of genocide, then who can? Here is a man who refuses to call the Armenian genocide of two million Christians a genocide, but who expects the Holocaust to be considered as such. What's the difference? And if he can dismiss that genocide, what differentiates him from, say, an Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust? Foxman went so far as to fire an ADL regional director for disagreeing with him over the Armenian genocide.

Foxman has defended Barack Obama's egregious betrayal of Israel, saying, in the teeth of all the evidence, "I don't see this as the president throwing Israel under the bus." He has (only once) acknowledged that "the greatest threat to the Jewish people and the highest priority for the ADL was that which came from Islamic extremists." However, he has issued thousands of press releases over the last seventeen years, and less than three percent of them have had anything to do with the Islamic jihad or Islamic anti-Semitism.

Once, in 2010, Foxman showed that he still had some remnants of a conscience and the courage to do the right thing when he voiced opposition to the Ground Zero mosque. But immediately after that, he began prostrating himself in front of any mosque or madman who would listen, trying to make amends. He even launched the "Interfaith Coalition on Mosques" in September 2010; its objective is to fight for monster-mosque construction rights. What's wrong with this? Imagine an"Islamic Coalition to Build Synagogues in Muslim Countries," or the "Islamic Coalition of Muslims to Build Coptic Christian Churches in Egypt," or the "Islamic Coalition to Build Hindu Temples in India, Kashmir, and Pakistan." (OK, you can stop laughing now.)

Foxman is building coalitions to construct mega-mosques that will almost certainly teach the most vile anti-Semitism on the planet today, as do 80% of mosques in America. Foxman also came out in support of the Islamic school in Brooklyn whose principal was forced to resign because of her involvement in anti-Semitic "Intifada NYC" t-shirts (see here).

Foxman demonizes proud Jews who love Israel and fight for freedom, while he kowtows to the Islamic jihad. And Jewish Week happily serves it up to its subscribers.

We saw the lengths to which the left will go to demonize and destroy its opponents this week, when in the New York Jewish Week on March 16, Abraham Foxman charged that I am "in many ways no better than Farrakhan or Buchanan." I am proud of my work as a patriot and a passionate Zionist; to be compared to Jew-haters by a man who styles himself a leader of the Jews is abominable.

Foxman charged me with bigotry for my work with Stop Islamization of America, a program of my organization, the American Freedom Defense Initiative. So now defending free society from an ideology that makes war against free speech and equal rights for women and non-Muslims is "bigotry." Defending Jews from an ideology that features a more deeply ingrained and violent anti-Semitism than any other in the world is "hatred."

We have seen the likes of Abe Foxman before in Jewish history: the reviled traitor among us -- Dathan in TheTen Commandments. The idea that this greasy quisling still leads the Anti-Defamation League is a stunning indictment of the failure of Jewish lay leadership. Worse still, a Jewish press is publishing this collaborator. I called Gary Rosenblatt, the editor of Jewish Week, several times over the last few days, but he was always (surprise!) on the other line when I called. He did finally agree to print a letter from me, but he refused to give me the space he eagerly gave to Foxman to defame me.

The capacity for humiliating, destructive behavior from Abe Foxman (and those Jews who fund the Anti-Defamation League) continues to astound and repel proud Jews across the world.

Foxman's record of poisonous activity that is ultimately harmful to the Jewish community is longstanding. His denial of the Armenian genocide is monstrous. If we as a people cannot stand with other victims of genocide, then who can? Here is a man who refuses to call the Armenian genocide of two million Christians a genocide, but who expects the Holocaust to be considered as such. What's the difference? And if he can dismiss that genocide, what differentiates him from, say, an Ahmadinejad, who denies the Holocaust? Foxman went so far as to fire an ADL regional director for disagreeing with him over the Armenian genocide.

Foxman has defended Barack Obama's egregious betrayal of Israel, saying, in the teeth of all the evidence, "I don't see this as the president throwing Israel under the bus." He has (only once) acknowledged that "the greatest threat to the Jewish people and the highest priority for the ADL was that which came from Islamic extremists." However, he has issued thousands of press releases over the last seventeen years, and less than three percent of them have had anything to do with the Islamic jihad or Islamic anti-Semitism.

Once, in 2010, Foxman showed that he still had some remnants of a conscience and the courage to do the right thing when he voiced opposition to the Ground Zero mosque. But immediately after that, he began prostrating himself in front of any mosque or madman who would listen, trying to make amends. He even launched the "Interfaith Coalition on Mosques" in September 2010; its objective is to fight for monster-mosque construction rights. What's wrong with this? Imagine an"Islamic Coalition to Build Synagogues in Muslim Countries," or the "Islamic Coalition of Muslims to Build Coptic Christian Churches in Egypt," or the "Islamic Coalition to Build Hindu Temples in India, Kashmir, and Pakistan." (OK, you can stop laughing now.)

Foxman is building coalitions to construct mega-mosques that will almost certainly teach the most vile anti-Semitism on the planet today, as do 80% of mosques in America. Foxman also came out in support of the Islamic school in Brooklyn whose principal was forced to resign because of her involvement in anti-Semitic "Intifada NYC" t-shirts (see here).

Foxman demonizes proud Jews who love Israel and fight for freedom, while he kowtows to the Islamic jihad. And Jewish Week happily serves it up to its subscribers.